Dental educational institutions move with the tech revolution

Of course, implementing a comprehensive digital workflow requires a significant amount of planning and funding. Someone well versed at implementing digital technology into the educational setting is Dr Ilser Turkyilmaz, from the Department of Prosthodontics at the New York University College of Dentistry. Dr Turkyilmaz is leading digital transformation at the school, has written several papers on the challenges dental educational institutions face in modernising their offerings, and provides advice to many schools across the US on how best to approach the current digital revolution.

Speaking independently to Dental Tribune International, Dr Turkyilmaz said the three main hurdles a school faces are cost, training and infrastructure when planning to upgrade and modernise. He explained, “In the first place, it requires significant investment if a school wants to upgrade its workflow. Secondly, the faculty has to be willing to be trained and to upskill in order to go on then and educate students. Thirdly, because all this technology has been designed for mostly single-practice chairside use where a dentist might scan one or two crowns a day, unfortunately in large dental educations institutions, that model does not work in the same manner, and the infrastructure needed to accommodate sometimes hundreds of students is immense.”

Specifically, one of the main challenges is data security. Dr Turkyilmaz said, “Two years ago, we started thinking about some new ideas on data security and spoke with many companies about how we could integrate a secure workflow. In the end, Planmeca was the only company willing to work with us in a way that allowed us to create what we have called the fully integrated workflow.” Although Dr Turkyilmaz was unable to share any concrete details owing to ongoing developments, he did say that there is a chance for dental companies like Planmeca to become more involved with dental schools. “Students who are not trained to use this new technology will be less willing to adopt it into their practice when they start working,” he said, noting that, if companies were more willing to invest in education, the returns could be significant when students enter the workforce.

However, whereas the need to remain up-to-date with the latest technology and trends is essential for dental schools and their students, according to Dr Turkyilmaz, completely letting go of traditional methods is not a good idea either. “Training in a hybrid model of digital and traditional techniques is best. I know of examples where students have only been trained to use digital technology and do not know, for example, how to take an impression using traditional techniques. This is a problem, because if you go for an interview at a private practice and your prospective employer has not implemented things like intra-oral scanners, then you will find that you are not very hireable.”

This balance between traditional methods and new technology within an educational setting is not new. Commenting on how the future might look, Dr Turkyilmaz said, “Technology has changed the world. Dentistry and dental education are not immune to that. Many of the techniques we are currently using are almost completely different from what was delivered 20 or 30 years ago. And I am sure that, in another 20 or 30 years, the situation will be vastly different again.”